A draining experience

The kids had a day off school today for Jewish New Year, so the Man decided to spend the day at home too.

This meant he got to join in some drain-jetting fun with two guys who came round with a very long hosepipe. The aim was to fix our water-in-the-basement problem - much alleviated when we recently had our gutters cleared, but still recurring in a couple of corners. Anyway, down went the hose, on went the water...but why weren't we seeing any water coming out to the storm drain on the street?

It did come rushing out eventually, after a long delay. The guy-in-charge was intrigued and at no extra charge he put a special camera down the same way as the hose and snaked it along, and we got a rat's eye view of the inside of our rainwater drains via a computer screen, which was kind of fun. Didn't see much, just some sludge (no rats). So it's still unclear what the problem is.

Meanwhile, apart from a family swim at the "Y" it's been frantic attempts to get things smart for some very important visitors.

Woofers and squeakers

My umbrella dilemma found a simple solution in the end as I realised I'd have to drive up to school during the day anyway, so I took them myself. Would that the US government could solve the current financial crisis so easily...

This morning I finished painting the kitchen, and this afternoon at school I was down in the basement taking inventory of Fall Fair equipment and assessing mouse damage.

A propos of nothing, can you name this dog? I snapped his photo the other day while I was out and about in town. I noticed him from afar on our first reconnaissance visit to Albany, way back when. As a long-time collector of gramophones and 78s, I saw his presence as yet another sign that our move here was meant to be.

Umbrella Organisation

Much of the day was spent doing odd jobs around the house. Late in the afternoon I set off with the children to a friend's 'surprise' birthday party, organised by the friend's daughter who is in the Girl's class. At least, the daughter had come up with the concept of a party, but apart from issuing a few invitations she seemed to have delegated most of the business end of it, like the catering, to her Mom's partner. He came up with the goods, I must say, and provided excellent homemade pizzas and large quantities of spaghetti.

We got caught in torrential rain on arrival, and again as we departed. We borrowed umbrellas to get ourselves to the car as we left, promising that the kids would bring them into school tomorrow to return them. Only problem is, I remembered too late, the school bus driver won't allow kids to bring umbrellas on the bus because they might use them as 'weapons'. We'll just have to negotiate a solution with her in the morning, I guess.

Obama party

This evening a friend invited me along to a local 'Women for Obama' party. I went out of curiosity as much as anything. While my leanings are definitely Democrat, I wouldn't call myself an Obama Mama. There were some true believers at the party, but I'm too cynical (realistic?) to think any politician is going to get everything right. I hope he wins, but I don't find him as inspirational as many others clearly do.

What I think is entirely academic, of course, since I can't vote here.

But I met some interesting people - teachers, an author - and the discussion took in books and movies and education and cultural diversity as well as politics. There were a couple of brief speeches urging us to spread the word. The main motivating force for this particular group, I think, is the hope that Obama might set about the provision of affordable healthcare-for-all.

The wars in Iraq and Afghanistan featured too, and it was good to hear an acknowledgement of Iraqi and Afghan losses in these wars - so often overlooked in political pronouncements over here (even, alas, by Obama).

To my surprise the Governor of Alaska didn't get much overt mention, though clearly the Women for Obama are decidedly not for McCain's bizarre running mate Sarah Palin. Poor old Palin, she looks less like a bulldog and more and more like a rabbit in the headlights with every interview she gives. A propos Governor Palin, you might enjoy this if you haven't seen it yet...

Supply and demand

In a week when there has been much urgent talk of financial strategies and fiscal policy, our Boy has been developing his own personal economic strategy. Last night he presented the Man with a huge pile of loose change, carefully totted up by the Girl, and requested some dollar bills in exchange. "Where did you get all that from?" asked the Man. "I find it round the house" said the Boy, adding cheerfully: "I do especially well in your bedroom".

Given the Man's tendency to put any loose change he has on his bedside table (night stand), this scheme could run forever with the same coins.

So the Boy has discovered wealth creation. Has he got a lucrative career in finance ahead of him? Or has he just missed the boat on that one?

Revelations

I've just got back from 'Meet the Teachers' night at school. It was quite revealing, but not in ways that I was expecting.

In the Girl's class the parents were given a sample maths excercise - a simple addition sum, which we were told to solve in two different ways of our own choosing. I lined up the numbers in columns, carried over the tens etc, using the method we all had drummed into us at school. Easy enough. Then for the life of me I couldn't think of another way to calculate it. My mind blanked completely. And suddenly, for a moment, it felt just like being back in one of my own junior school maths lessons.

I wasn't taught maths well early on, and always approached the subject with a mixture of fear and boredom which was not conducive to learning much. I have the impression that my kids will get to enjoy a quite different relationship with numbers, and for that I am very grateful.

The next revelation came in the Boy's classroom, where all the children had drawn family portraits. In the Boy's, his sister was enormous! His parents looked of average size, and the Boy himself was so tiny I almost missed him. What this says about how he views the dynamics of his closest personal relationships I hardly dare to contemplate. At least everyone was smiling.

When I got home, another Revelation of a sort, or anyway an interesting reworking (by the Boy) of a well-known story from Genesis. See how Noah, thwarted in his rescue bid, is lying down on the deck of the Ark, while the two-by-two animals line up to be saved by the astronauts. There's probably a thesis in there involving Science and Creationism, but I'm too tired to work on it right now...

Paint job

When I drop the Man off at work of a morning I often end up somewhere like Lowes DIY store, one of the few shops nearby that is open at that time (most open at 10am). The sales staff always send me off with my purchases wishing me a 'great afternoon' - when it's still only about 9:30, if that - which I used to find puzzling. I finally realised that, since the store opens at six, they must have to get up for work before dawn. Fair enough then that by the time they see me they are already thinking about lunch.

Lowes is where I buy my paint supplies, which have been keeping me busy all week. The children, who did not approve of the recent bathroom makeover, are deeply suspicious when they get in from school. The Boy greets me bailfully with 'So, what have you ruined today?'

Yesterday and today I've been working on the main bedroom. Yesterday I also had a go at filling cracks in the drive, in preparation for winter's freeziness.

The End of the World is postponed

The Man writes...those of you who know about my CERN past may be surprised that I haven't blogged about the LHC before now.

Don't get me wrong: this is a remarkable machine and an inspirational endeavour, but since the main story on September 10th was apparently that the LHC might produce an Earth-swallowing black hole, please can I put a few things straight...It's not really the largest collider ever built - the LEP collider was built in the same tunnel twenty years ago so is equally as big. It is not currently the most powerful proton collider ever built - the protons in the "Tevatron" near Chicago, which has been running since the mid 1980s, have more than twice as much energy. And September 10th - in full view of the World's press - was not the first time that beam was injected into the LHC, as made clear on CERN's website.

The beam energy - and the field in LHCs superconducting magnets - must now be increased by a factor of more than 10 before the physics begins. This was always going to be the toughest part, and involves "training" (i.e. "quenching") the magnets. But thanks to the remarkable success of CERN's publicity machine, last Friday's almost inevitable setback, which has postponed further beam operations till next year, has occurred in the intense glare of the world's media.

It could be years before LHC has high current beams colliding at full energy (and years after that before significant physics results emerge from the detectors). So don't hold your breath. And don't stop worrying about those black holes yet either...

Atishoo, atishoo - all Fall down

So, now Fall is officially here. Gone are the mosquitoes, and in their place come the stinky colds. Every season has its perils.

Wallaby wannabe

I had the following conversation with the Boy this evening as he was shoving small toys down the front of his pyjama trousers:

Me: I wouldn't put those in there...

Boy: Why not? It's a good way to carry things if you're a kangaroo.

Me: But you're not a kangaroo.

Boy:(as if realising for the first time) Oh, yeah. I'm not a kangaroo!

The Girl spent most of the day on a distant playdate. Meanwhile the rest of us spent the last day of summer on seasonal yard jobs. We expect leaves to fall at this time of year, but a whole lot more tree came down in the recent winds.

Fall festival rocks!

No, no of COURSE we didn't make the Boy and Exile #3 sleep in a tent in the yard!

The day started early - remarkably early considering how late some small people had finally got to sleep. After play and breakfast and more play we all packed into the car and tootled along to Five Rivers to set up for the Fall Festival.

It was all a great success. The craft activities were so popular that we had pretty much run out of materials by the halfway point and had to extemporise along the lines of 'Go and FIND a rock, then you can paint it!' Meanwhile elsewhere around the festival kids were catching and observing insects, learning how to cast a fishing line, meeting reptiles, finding out about laying campfires and a whole lot else besides.

The event was unique for me in bringing together for the first time, and without design on my part, representatives of nearly every aspect of my American life: Five Rivers committee, obviously, but also neighbours, families from school, and ex-pat work-related friends. It felt strangely like being back in Linton.

Clearing up was nearly done by the time we left. After seven hours on site, an ice-cream at our local creamery seemed like a well-deserved treat.

Just time to turn around then on to a party next door - plentiful food, kids, a blazing fire in the yard. Several of the men sat down to a game of poker. 'Let's play Wall Street poker,' one of them quipped, 'I'll gamble with your money, and when I lose it all you can bail me out.'

I am not a number! (Or maybe I am?)

As part of the taxing returns business it seemed necessary for me to get an Individual Tax Identification Number (ITIN). This would be instead of a Social Security Number (SSN), for which, as we've already established, I am ineligible.

I went to the Albany Internal Revenue Service (IRS) office and asked the woman there if she could issue me an ITIN. She gave me a deer-in-the-headlights look and said, 'I don't think we do those...' She let me phone a Federal Tax office in Detroit to ask their advice. I had to phone them five times and listen to four entirely unrelated people's voicemail messages before I got hold of an actual person. He advised me that I needed to get an ITIN from the Social Security Office.

Well luckily that was just two floors down from the IRS office, so down I went and awaited my turn. I asked the Social Security official if she could issue me an ITIN. She gave me a 'what's one of those?' look and suggested I try the IRS office upstairs.

I may have sobbed a little. Out of kindness, she took a look at my passport. 'Oh!' she said, 'Actually, with a visa like yours you can have a Social Security Number. I just need to see your marriage certificate.'

Really? Forgive me, but wasn't this the very same office that nine months ago had issued me with a letter of SSN ineligibility? But okay. I scurried home to fetch my marriage certificate. While there I quickly checked the Social Security and IRS websites. According to these (a)No, I was not eligible for an SSN and (b)I could pick up an ITIN application form from any IRS office. Curiouser and curiouser.

Are you still with me? I returned to the Social Security office, waited my turn again, and at the desk raised my doubts. The officer showed me her computer screen, which clearly stated that with my type of visa I could indeed apply for an SSN if I could prove I'd married my spouse before entering the USA. Which I could, so my application is now being processed.

Hooray. I think...

Tonight, blogworlds have collided! Exile #3 is staying for a sleepover! It might get a bit frosty tonight, but I'm sure she and the Boy will be fine in their little tent. As long as the bears don't show up...

Many unhappy returns

I spent another morning painting walls, and listening to endless talk about recession on the radio, followed by a discussion about Alzheimers and a phone-in on 'coping with stress'. Painting must be very therapeutic as I still felt pretty chipper by the end of it all.

When I popped outside to empty the mailbox I got chatting with the neighbour opposite. Turns out she is also a quilter, and she belongs to a book group which she has invited me to join. So that's all good.

The Man has come home with reasons to be cheerless - about a hundred pages of tax returns to plough through. If you spend so much as a night in another state on business (which the Man has, once or twice) you have to file tax returns for that state as well as your own, and that's before you even start on Federal returns...

Bus Drivergate

Well I don't know. 'Success' might not motivate you, but I thought cakes would. And not one of you in Britain has laid claim to 'drizzle cake', even after the summer I gather you've had.

We had a beautiful day here today, warm and sunny. I managed to finish painting a bathroom - not quite convinced I picked the right colour, but I'm not doing it again, that satin paint they recommend for bathrooms is horrible to use. I then took a walk up to the library and was back just in time to meet the kids off the bus.

Talking of which, the kids are struggling to reconcile themselves to their new driver, who is a much keener enforcer of good bus behaviour than the slightly whacky driver of last year. This comes as a bit of a shock to children who - get this - even get to call their teachers by first names or cheeky nicknames. A bit of strict discipline will do them no harm at all I reckon (adds the Man).

Gourds bless America

Plenty of gourds and the like this time of year. We saw this lovely display at Indian Ladder Farms on Sunday.

There was a waggon-load of mums, too, of course.









And there were also, to our surprise, crowds and crowds of people, mainly queueing up for apple donuts and cider. They do appreciate their apples and apple-products in this part of the world. I learnt today that the official State muffin for New York is the apple muffin. Do you have a state or county cake where you live? If so, what is it? If not, what would you like it to be?

Oh, Boy

A rare treat tonight - family night at the Man's workplace! We were all invited to take a look around the new facility that opened a few weeks ago. There was free food, including some family favourites: bright orange crisps for the Boy and donuts for the Girl. We got to put on amusing outfits and one of the Man's nice colleagues gave us a tour of a Clean Room, complete with an explanation of what the machines in it are designed to do. Towards the end we were invited to ask questions, and the Boy's hand shot up. I was intrigued to know what he wanted to ask. It turned out to be (with his wickedest grin) Is the tour over now?

Apple of my eye

This is what we did today, at Indian Ladder Farms:


There were plenty of warnings that "Apple Picking is Dangerous" and that tree climbing was absolutely forbidden, so the very reddest MacIntoshes, which the Girl desired most, remained just out of reach.

But we still took home a half a bushel (with difficulty).

Bill Stickers is innocent, OK?

This morning someone who prefers to remain anonymous went around my immediate neighbourhood putting up posters for the Five Rivers Fall Festival. I (oops, she) felt a little apprehensive, not being sure of postering etiquette here. There aren't many lamp-posts around, so signs advertising events (mainly garage sales) generally get put up on telegraph poles. Very often these poles stand in people's front yards - so does pinning up a poster on them constitute trespass? I'm still not sure, but tend to think that if a pole is already hedgehogged with old nails and staples it's probably regarded as fair game.

Mid-afternoon we tootled up to Saratoga and joined a fun party (good company, excellent food) that included various fellow bloggers, work colleagues and others. The Man and I enjoyed chatting with an American couple who had lived in Cambridge (England) for several years - it was interesting to compare notes on the US/UK expat experience from the reverse perspective.

Quest for success

Quite a successful day - for one thing I cleaned out the hall closet and managed to find a missing glove.

The other week at the Berkshire Museum we came across this question, posed in the Hall of Innovation:

What does success mean to you?

The answers offered by recent visitors mostly involved money and/or chicks.

But what do you think? Your suggestions, earnest or facetious, please...

Greener cleaner T-time

A job I've been working on recently, which has somehow fallen my way, is to sort out a new range of T-shirts and sweatshirts to sell as a fundraiser for school (when they're done selling off all the mums). I've made it my mission to find an ethical supplier, so we can sell sweatshop-free clothing. Even with the aid of the internet it has been an almighty headache trying to check the credentials of various potential suppliers, and to some extent I still feel I'm acting on faith.

To add to the general Green-cred, I've tracked down a printer who is offering organic T-shirts (did you know conventional cotton is the second most sprayed crop? Coffee takes the top spot) printed with water-based (rather than toxic plastic) inks. So that's something.

Listen, I'm pretty sure I've as many bargain-priced earth-polluting, unethically manufactured clothes in my wardrobe as the next person. But through this school I've met many people who are trying to be mindful consumers, and their efforts prick my conscience. So the least I can do is try and help myself and the small community I find myself in to do the right thing, in this one tiny area if nothing else.

Fizzin'

Back to back Fall festival meetings for me this evening - one up at school and one at Five Rivers. My brain is throbbing somewhat.

The Man was talking science with the Boy tonight:

Man: Did you know I'm a physicist?

Boy: Does that mean you test soda? I want to be one of those!

Artist in residence

Well, painter, anyway. I'm making use of the kid-free hours and the gallons of paint we bought recently to decorate the house. I rather like painting once I get started and can cheerfully keep going all day, which is just as well since there are still many walls to cover.

I did take a break today to go and help out in the school library, where I enjoyed meeting new members of the Boy's class. The Boy himself is now one of the minority First Graders in his mixed Kindergarten/1st Grade class. He seems to be coping with the responsibility that comes with such seniority, and eagerly helped me on the check-out desk.

For those anxiously awaiting Wednesday's switch-on of the Large Hadron Collider at CERN, the Man (who, for reasons I am not at liberty to disclose, has inside information) would like to offer his guarantee that there is nothing to fear and the world isn't about to come to an end.

Yet.

All Greek to me

We came across this wonderful thing in a Greek diner in Connecticut the other weekend. The kids got pretty silly over it, especially when they found that for a mere quarter they could order up Britney Spears' Oops I did it again - apparently the most hilarious song either of them had ever heard.

Most independent diners here are Greek-run, we've learnt. They are a boon and a blessing to us when it comes to family meals out, being the only eating establishments that can be relied on to serve hotdogs and breakast cereal - as well as proper food - at any hour. This particular one offered the added entertainment of a fifty-page menu featuring many of the same items more than once but with different prices.

Man at work

It was a community work day at school today, so we duly went along to do our bit. There was a good turnout. The Girl got stuck into window-cleaning with a couple of friends. The Boy and I helped weed and rake the sandbox. The Man busied himself up a ladder for a while, then moved outside to shift gravel in the midday sun.

Then with some others we descended on a diner franchise which exclusively serves large helpings of cholesterol. Three-egg omlettes, ice-cream served with extra cream, steak and cheese... you get the picture. Over 55s get their own 'Let us kill you for less!' reduced-rate menu.

When we got home we spent half an hour clearing fallen leaves out of the pool, and ten minutes swimming very briskly. I fear it may soon be time to close it up for the season.

By the way, I noticed 'Mums for Sale' signs up around school. An extreme fund-raising strategy? Or maybe something else - have you worked it out yet?

The more it rains, tiddly pom

The Man writes... It has rained and rained and rained today, the remnants they say of tropical storm Hanna which caused such misery in the Caribbean ealier this week. Officially it's been in the mid 70s but it has seemed much hotter and everybody is getting cranky.

Stuck indoors, Albaniana and children found they could amuse themselves making multi-coloured woolly pom-poms, presumably destined for ironically comic bobble hats this winter. Also in preparation for the winter we have been visiting DIY stores and stock-piling paint in order to make the creamy interior walls a little less neutral. One day.

The battle of the Boy's thumb continues. It seemed hopeless until we had the wheeze of making him wash his hands with soap. Even after rinsing, his thumb apparently tasted too awful to go back in his mouth today. I guess we should have thought of that before.

Mum's the word

A newsletter arrived today from one of my favourite fabric shops. The opening paragraph reads:

Fall is in the air, the kids are going back to school and mums are replacing the summer annuals.

Well, that's a bit of an assumption, I thought. Who says mothers do all the gardening? And what are they meant to be replacing the summer annuals with?

And then I thought, Oh, hang on - I'm a Mom now, aren't I, not a Mum.

So, what kind of 'mum' are they talking about?

Back to School

Don't be fooled by the mist and the jackets early this morning - it's been another very hot day today. The bags are filled with school supplies by the way - hopefully the kids won't be laden like pack mules every day...the Man wrote.

Skeletons in the cupboard?

A quiet day. The kids, conscious perhaps that from tomorrow they'll have a lot of company to deal with each day, seemed more than happy to spend long stretches just pottering in their rooms. The Girl even turned down a playdate offered in the afternoon.

This evening one of the Man's work colleagues stopped for dinner and in the course of conversation took us aback by informing us he has a dead coyote in his freezer. Americans can be rather surprising.

Thumbs Down

The Boy has been playing along to some of his favourite songs today. Not that I want to discourage this new musical interest, but it would be really good if he could learn more than just the one note on his recorder. Fortunately he was mainly practising in his room with door and windows closed, but even so the rest of us all got to endure (sorry, enjoy) it too.

He is trying to give up sucking his thumb, having finally accepted that it'll ruin his teeth if he doesn't. He was a woeful figure at bedtime tonight, though last time I looked he'd hidden the hand with the favourite thumb on it inside a cuddly baby penguin puppet. I hope his strategy works and that he doesn't wake up with a mouthful of fur.

The Girl's challenge today has been to get her homework done so that we can enjoy the last day off school (tomorrow) without it hanging over us. To be honest she hasn't quite finished, but she has made good progress and she'll polish it off in the morning I'm sure.

Seasons to be cheerful

It has come round again - Labor Day. Traditionally on this day our family likes to visit Grafton Lakes (well, it's what we did last year, anyway). We weren't quite so active this time round: no hike around the lake, no boating. Some rowing (argumentative sort) on the mini-golf course, but we won't dwell on that (and no, in spite of my disreputable golfing past I wasn't involved).

Mostly, though, the kids played happily on the sand or in the water and we had a relaxing afternoon of it.

And now we're into September. Although the temperature here seems to be rising rather than falling it does feel like we've made a big shift towards the next season. So much to look forward to - leaves turning, apple picking, silly songs in assembly... All the fun of the Fall!